Thursday, December 6, 2012

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has named 25 community members and 23 employees to lead the task forces that will help Superintendent Heath Morrison and the school board chart the future of CMS.

A news release says CMS has already gotten hundreds of requests to take part. Morrison wants to keep membership to about a dozen on each of the 22 panels to ensure each group can work effectively. That means some won't get a requested assignment -- but everyone will have a chance to attend public meetings with the task forces in 2013.

District leaders plan to announce membership later this month, with task force meetings running from January to June and helping shape the 2013-14 budget and the five-year strategic plan.

Here's who has been named to lead the groups:

*Closing the Achievement Gap: Marian Yates, former principal of South Mecklenburg High, and Karin Dancy, CMS director of grant innovation.

Collier

*Extended Learning Opportunities: Brian Collier, senior vice president of Foundation for the Carolinas, and Anna Renfro, CMS executive director of curriculum and support programs. ("Extended learning" covers after-school and summer programs and the possibility of longer school days or years.)

*College and Career Readiness/Reverse Engineering Pathways for Success: Bill Anderson, former CMS principal/administrator and current executive director of MeckEd, and Karen Thomas, CMS executive director of student services. (Free branding tip: Spend the first two minutes shortening the name of this task force, folks.)

*Compensation: Bo Boylan, a CMS parent and business consultant, and CMS program manager Jaronica Howard.

DeVaul

*Parent Engagement and Involvement: Ellen Martin, a former CMS parent who served on the now-defunct CMS Equity Committee, and Paul Holden, executive director of CMS' Parent University.

Schindler

*Proactive Community and Faith Partnerships: Mike DeVaul, a CMS parent and a senior vice president of the YMCA of Greater Charlotte; Rabbi Judy Schindler of Temple Beth El; and Chiquita Lloyd, administrator of the CMS minority, women and small business enterprise program.

*Culture, Engagement and Shared Values: Former CMS board chairman Arthur Griffin, who now works for McGraw-Hill Education; Gwen High (CMS did not release any information about her); and Alvin Griffin, CMS director of graphic production (no, I don't know if he's related to Arthur Griffin).

*Cultural Competence Framework: Dianne English, executive director of the Community Building Initiative, and Maria Petrea, former principal of Collinswood Language Academy and current executive director of CMS' east zone.

English

*Accountability Framework: Natalie English, CMS parent and senior vice president of public policy for the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, and Danielle Miller, CMS director of information, visualization and innovation.

*Process and System Improvement: Leslie Johnson, associate general manager for Mecklenburg County, and Janelle Jenkins, a Broad Fellow working for CMS.

*Public Trust, Marketing and Branding: Jerri Haigler, a former CMS spokeswoman who is now a communication executive for United Way of Central Carolinas, and CMS communications director Tahira Stalberte.

Whoa! This looks like the same old, same old. How can someone on the inside see what's wrong? Even some of the community members are too close to the forest to see the trees!! If this is as innovative as Morrision can get, God bless us all.

Anybody that has the energy to sit around in numerous meetings properly tossing back and forth ephemeral academic jargon has NO capacity to prevent this stalled aircraft of CMS from crashing into the ground!

Look at all of the liberal Democrats selected, the same liberal Democrats who just voted a President back into office with the slogan "Forward", yet does nothing but blame the past administration and others for his failures the last four years.

Maybe the Board of Education, Morrison and the heads of these committees can go to Washington and "bring home the bacon", but you better hurry, Detroit has already loaded up the bus and hit the road running.

"Echoing a theme stated by many other companies, [Apple CEO Tim] Cook said he believes the U.S. education system is failing to produce enough people with the skills needed for modern manufacturing processes. He added, however, that he hopes the new Mac project will help spur others to bring manufacturing back to the U.S."

12:11, kids are gone. Concerned about our qualiy of community going downhill and the ever accelerating property tax burden. Hopefully housing prices can recover some next year. Need to sell the house to afford to move. Taking a hit on the credit rating is tough to overcome if you just walk away and you are not a minority.

I am a CMS proponent, and work with many of the people on the list. Many are good, skilled, leaders. That said, I am highly disappointed in the direction this is going. If the plan is to "move CMS forward", focusing so strongly on the past and present, whether good or bad, is exactly the wrong way to do it.

What other divisive lightening rods can we add to the mix? How about inviting the leaders of Ballantyne's Spark to join in? Ya' know, just to balance the Middle Ring out - in the spirit of peace, love and "Equity"?

Well you have the same old voices "community leaders" and the CMS Employees are all upper management..How about some real employees , not Heath's yes men and women worried about shake ups and firings..... I think you should have a task force why it takes so many "administrative positions" to basically make no decisions......the old three guys leaning on a shovel watching one guy dig.......oh wait manual labor ...we wouldn't understand that one

That's so funny. I was wondering where Louise Woods was in all of this? The thing about Louise is I always thought her heart was in the right place. There's a genuineness to her that makes the off-the-grid leftist educational philosophy bearable. I'd much prefer having her lead a task-force committee than some of the rest. I'd also prefer her to someone who talks out of both sides of their mouth. There's no such thing as being "independent" on the school board. You land on one side of the line drawn in the sand or the other. You might not agree with Louise but there's some humility there. Blessed are the peacemakers.

Louise a peacemaker-come on, Alicia, give us a break! She was happy to throw the suburbs onto the bus--didn't care what the board's policies did to children and families. And don't forget, she is part of the Meck ACTS triumvirate.

I had a telephone conversation with Louise one evening after a contenious school assignment hearing. She just could not see the issue with a middle class neighborhood changing middle school assignments 3 straight years and not due to new school construction. She said CMS needed our neighborhood to keep these schools from looking too bad on public test scores.

Louise came very close to getting our neighborhood middle schoolers changed from a school within 3 miles of our homes to one 8 miles away--said of our kids "they need a little diversity". This was a surprise proposal on her part--no discussion with the neighborhood beforehand, nor apparently, with the CMS assignment gurus.

OK. I get your point. However, if I had to chose I'd still chose Louise Woods over Molly, Willehemia, Arthur, Vilma, George, The Coach, The Reverend, The Rabbi, the Middle Ring, the Equity Committee and the rest of the leftist peanuts gang.

Alicia, I am getting concerned that you are evolving into the dreaded, "we are teachers, we have to save the world" mindset.

Educrats and politicians love your type. You can help them raise tons and tons of new tax money for their toys for just pandering "it's for the children". You may get 10% of the new money but the politicians and educrats get their huge cuts for their "legacies".

Thanks for standing up for Louise in the face of all of her conveniently anonymous detractors rehashing their old stories. Get over it folks! Just because you disagreed with Louise doesn't mean you need to keep bashing her. That's middle school stuff.

9:37I led Meck ACTS in a dance protest outside of the government center because I thought it was stupid for CMS to waste their time and resources designing and implementing standardized pay-for-performance tests in modern dance and marching band.

9:37I think forced busing is the worst thing we've ever inflicted on school children. I survived two highly contentious boundary reassignment controversies in two different neighborhoods within a 4 year period. CMS lied to my second neighborhood which was abruptly reassigned on June 9th - after the school year ended - without warning in order to "save" another school. Molly Griffin and The Middle Ring were part of the underhanded plot. A year later, I transferred my youngest child into private school. 2 years after this, my oldest child followed suit. I had enough.

I think most American's value the ideal of diverse schools. A lot of native Charlotteans believe that forced busing was the ONLY way to realize this goal. I happen to prefer strong magnet schools that were primarily established in the 1970's to encourage VOLUNTARY integration. Louis Woods is of a time and place that is foreign to me. However, even she and I share areas of common ground and mutual agreement which is preferable to all out war.

9:45From my perspective, Molly Griffin was not a truthful, straightforward or honest CMS leader. She had a philosophic and political agenda and was not forthcoming in her actions in regarding the reassignment of my neighborhood. She did a good job hosting dinner parties at her house with leaders of The Middle Ring and honorable guests including Dr. Gorman. In retaliation, Ken Gjertsen and Trent Merchant pulled a fast-one reassigning the Thornhill neighborhood in the middle of the summer while Molly was on holiday in Europe.

At least Louise Woods was straight-up with you. To my knowledge, Louise never pulled this kind of crap.

Are you kidding me were is Kojo's seat? He is the only one left out of the festivas. English is a IDIOT with no knowledge of education. Heath you just showed your cards by bringing in the Chamber along with Bolyn ad really Bill Anderson. SUCH a HUGE conflict of interest. These choices wll actually hurt your groups , because people who actually want to help wont be associated with that in bred group.

3:41- Spot on the conflicts are glaring. Heath has left Nevada , but still has been easily influenced in Mecklenburg rather quickly. Judge Manning should have a nice time with this ethnic cleansing group thats formed. My best guess is the state will not allow these groups to ever form without public access.